Reconnection
by Jeanie205
Summary: Bellamy finds Clarke alive after spending six years mourning her. He knows they have to talk but they're all only one step ahead of the folks from the Eligius and there never seems to be time. But when Madi and Octavia both weigh in, Bellamy finds the time. With very unexpected results. Mind the rating.


They'd scarcely had more than a moment together since Bellamy first saw her. A ghost come to life, he'd thought. A specter taking on flesh and blood right before his eyes.

He'd been most disconcertingly peering down the barrel of a rifle at the time. Then the gun and the man holding onto it had both suddenly disappeared, and there'd just been Clarke staring up at him with a hesitant smile.

For a second, he hadn't been sure which was the more unsettling — the gun about to blast a bullet into him, or the astonishing sight of the woman he'd thought dead, instead alive and well and saving his life. Bellamy swore that if there hadn't been a wall behind him he'd have crumbled to the ground from the shock.

"Hey, Bellamy," she'd said softly, her face lit with joy.

"Clarke?" He'd barely managed to choke it out.

But there'd been no more time then. Raven had grabbed him, pulling him away from the wall, her game leg scraping along heavily in the slightly denser gravity of the planet.

"You can have this reunion later," she'd snapped. "Right now we need to get the fuck out of here."

But then it seemed like _later_ never came.

After they'd finally gotten away from the criminals on the Eligius, there'd been the general rush to round up as many of their people as possible and follow Clarke to a safer spot at the far end of the green swath. Bellamy had been too preoccupied with providing assistance to consider taking time away from his leadership responsibilities for anything as seemingly selfish as personally reconnecting with Clarke.

Not that he hadn't been completely aware of her every second.

From across a meadow, he'd watched as she and Raven had embraced, their tears of joy falling unheeded. He'd taken a deep breath, and a tentative step in that direction, but then something or someone had claimed his attention. When he'd turned back, she was gone, melting into the crowd of travelers hurrying to safety. He'd spent a few minutes searching for those golden waves with the whimsical red streak, but had finally given up when duty called once more.

And so it had gone for the next two days as they made their way south, and then turned west toward the mountains and a secluded valley Clarke had found years before.

XXXXXXXXXX

It was the morning of their last day of travel when Madi approached him, although Bellamy wasn't sure that _approached_ was the right word. He'd met her earlier and found her delightful, but the determined set of her shoulders as she marched towards him had him wondering just what the hell had got her dander up.

Because Madi looked like a girl on a mission.

"Bellamy." She stood before him, a slight frown on her face, so reminding him of a young Octavia that he couldn't help but smile.

"Madi," he acknowledged. "Is there something in particular I can do for you this morning?"

"Yeah. You can talk to Clarke."

Bellamy was taken aback, and his eyes darted away momentarily as he wondered what had prompted this request.

"I've...spoken to Clarke," he hedged.

"Yeah, I heard you," she nodded, unconvinced. " _Should we stop here for the night?_ Or maybe even.. _What's the best place to cross the river?_ But that's not what I mean and you know it."

Bellamy felt his face heat up. If Madi had noticed his hesitation with Clarke, what about the others? Then he had an even more unsettling thought.

"Did Clarke send you over here?" he asked, suddenly afraid that Clarke might be angry with him.

Madi squinted up at him in the soft morning light, and her expression could not have said more clearly that she thought he must be an idiot.

"Of course she didn't. She'd probably hate that I'm talking to you about this. But...she's been telling me stories about all of you ever since I was little, Bellamy. And all this time, she's just been waiting for you to come back." Madi paused, looking him square in the eye. "And now you're back, and..." she hesitated.

"Yeah?" he prompted, hardly breathing.

Madi sighed. "And she's still waiting."

Bellamy felt his throat close. "I've seen her talking to the others, Madi. Raven, Monty..."

"Bellamy, stop! Of course she's happy to see all of them, but _you_ were the one she talked to every day..."

"What?"

Madi frowned. "On that radio she carries around. She talked to you on it every day, Bellamy. She never missed, not even when she was sick."

He felt his jaw dropping. _Could that possibly be true?_

Bellamy felt his heart race as he tried to absorb this new information.

"We never heard any messages," he said, his voice tight. "I thought she was dead. We all did."

"Yeah? Well, the others don't seem to have a problem with her being alive," Madi countered in that direct way he'd already come to expect from her.

Bellamy found he couldn't deflect in the face of her clear-eyed challenge.

"I...it's different for me," he admitted softly, the words pulled out of him.

Madi nodded. "I figured. That's why you gotta make it right."

She turned on her heel then, having delivered her message, and Bellamy wondered if maybe Madi wasn't right. Maybe he _had_ unconsciously been putting it off. Maybe he was afraid to reach out to this newly resurrected Clarke because he thought she might not reach back.

But he could do nothing about it at the moment.

By the time Madi scooted off, there was no time to hunt up Clarke before they had to resume their journey. Instead, he watched from afar all morning as she quietly assisted the cavalcade of refugees who struggled to reach yet another Promised Land.

Inwardly, Bellamy struggled, too. With how to approach her, with what he might say.

They reached their destination - a small village that had miraculously survived both praimfayas - just as the sun reached it's zenith. With a half-day of light left, the group quickly reorganized to set up temporary defenses and a guard rotation. They all knew the threat wasn't over, that those on the Eligius would be hunting for them. But everyone, Bellamy included, hoped that their familiarity with their surroundings and the terrain had given them them enough of a head start to keep them safe.

As he had been from the beginning of the journey, Bellamy was a part of that command structure. So it wasn't until late afternoon that he decided he might be able to take a break for some... personal business.

"Do you think we'll be safe here, Bell?" The voice startled him, and he turned to find Octavia standing not two feet away.

She looked exhausted from the travel, and, no doubt, from the years of heavy responsibility for all those in the bunker.

After six years, he and Octavia had found each other so changed that it had been difficult to regain their easy familiarity. But they were working on it. In any case, she was his sister and he loved her, and he had no wish to add to her burdens. But neither could he not tell her the truth.

He shrugged. "I don't know, O. But I think it's the best option we've got."

She nodded, then cocked a brow at him. "So why are you just... standing here?"

Bellamy felt himself flush a bit. "I was...uh...looking for Clarke."

Octavia snorted. "Some things never change."

He frowned. "So, did you maybe forget that for six years I thought she was dead?"

Octavia looked chagrined. "I did forget that for a moment, big brother. So, how has it been going?"

Bellamy sighed. "It hasn't. Everything's been so crazy that I've hardly had the chance to talk to her at all."

Whatever he might have expected from O - sympathy, disdain, even indifference - it certainly hadn't been anger.

"What the fuck is wrong with you, Bellamy? She's back from the dead and you just..."

Octavia's voiced trailed off in a huff, and Bellamy caught the glint of tears as she turned her face quickly away. When she spoke, her voice barely rose above a whisper.

"If I had the chance, if...he...was still alive..."

Bellamy's heart sank as it always did when he thought about Lincoln, berating himself afresh for failing his friend so badly. And it was clear Octavia was still carrying that grief around, buried somewhere deep inside.

But then she shook herself, and by the time her head swung back towards him the tears had dried up. "Don't waste it, Bell. If you feel the same about Clarke as...you always did, you gotta at least try."

"Yeah," he nodded, "I know. It's why I was looking..."

"Over there," she said suddenly, waving her hand. "Down at the end of the village. Can't miss that hair."

When Bellamy hesitated, glancing around at everything that still needed to be done, Octavia urged him on.

"Miller can handle it from here, Bell. Go take some time for yourself."

Before he could find yet another excuse, Bellamy nodded, hoisted his rifle across his back and set out through the village towards the spot where Clarke was standing. But by the time he reached it, she'd moved up the hill behind the village and was at just that moment disappearing into the tree line.

 _Shit! What the hell did she think she was doing, going off by herself like that?_ They all figured they'd evaded the Eligians for now, but there was no way to be absolutely sure.

Bellamy hurried after her, cutting into the tree line at the exact same spot. But once inside the still-dense forest, though he turned his head in every direction, Clarke Griffin was nowhere to be seen.

XXXXXXXXXX

It was quiet in those woods, the hubbub from the village below muted almost immediately by the thick canopy of trees and shrubs that had somehow escaped the devastation that swept across most of the planet. Bellamy sighed, hoping he still retained enough of his Earth skills to be able to track Clarke's movements.

As he peered more closely at his surroundings, he began to notice little signs that pointed the way. A bent leaf. A broken twig. Some disturbance in the earth. All told him someone had passed that way recently, and who else could it be but Clarke?

After a while, Bellamy was so intent on retrieving his rusty tracking skills that he never noticed that he'd moved so far from the village that even the faintest sounds of human activity had disappeared altogether.

Until the deep silence was broken by the loud click of a rifle bring cocked a few feet behind him.

Startled, Bellamy grabbed at his back and whipped around, only to see that it was too late. That someone had gotten the drop on him. Someone who was just as startled as he was.

"Bellamy! What the hell is wrong with you! I thought I heard someone following me and...fuck! I almost shot you!"

Clarke had lowered her gun by now, shaking her head in disbelief.

His lips quirked into a crooked smile. "I _was_ following you." He shrugged. "And I wasn't trying to be stealthy about it. I just wanted to find you."

She was immediately alert. "Why? Has something happened? Madi?"

"No, no, Madi's fine," he hastened to assure her. "Last I saw of her she was helping Raven. Nothing to worry about."

Although he understood the feeling completely.

Clarke leaned her rifle against a tree and crossed her arms in front of her. Bellamy remembered that stance as though it were yesterday.

"Right where I left her. So, then...why were you looking for me?"

Her face was blank, giving away nothing of what might be going on inside her head, and right then, Bellamy knew he could still deflect, still pull back, still avoid the conversation he'd come to have. Just tell her he was worried when she wandered off alone.

Instead he took a deep breath, unwilling to be that much of a coward.

"I just...I wanted to talk to you," he said, his voice hesitant.

Clarke didn't respond at first, and then, stiffly, "That's a surprise."

"Clarke, I'm sorry..."

"You have nothing to be sorry about," she said quickly. "Was it something in particular you wanted to talk about?"

Her body was as stiff as her voice, and Bellamy could stand it no longer. He reached her in two quick strides, throwing his rifle off his back and grabbing her upper arms.

"Yeah," he said softly. "I wanted to explain about what a jackass I've been for the last couple of days. About how hard it was for me to take in that you really were...still alive."

He thought she might try to move away then, or shrug him off. But instead her eyes softened and her ams relaxed.

"Yeah," she said, the corners of her mouth tugging upwards, "surprise."

"Best fucking surprise I've ever had. I just needed a little while to take it in before we talked. But then... there were always a million other people around."

"No one's around now," she said, looking him straight in the eye. "You can say... whatever you need to."

"Yeah? Well, what if instead of talking I just... do this?"

His arms closed around her then, and for a fraction of a second he worried she might not respond, but then her arms wrapped around his waist and a tiny sob burst from her. When he felt her head nestle against his shoulder Bellamy sagged with relief.

"Thank god," she said, squeezing him tightly. "I thought...maybe..."

"What did you think?" he asked, pulling back, watching the tears track down her face, feeling the wetness on his own.

"That maybe," she gave a tiny shrug as she studied him, "you just didn't care."

"Jesus, Clarke! I cared!" He folded his arms around her, crushing her against him. "I thought you were dead," he choked, "that I had left you behind to die. And I fucking mourned you for six years. And even though I tried to tell myself I was over it, it was never really true. So when I saw you on that ship...fuck! It was like seeing a ghost."

"I'm no ghost," she whispered. "I'm real. And you did the right thing, Bellamy. You did the only thing you _could_ do."

"Maybe," he muttered, "but somehow that never made me feel any better about it. All I could do, every damn day, was try and remember everything you said to me. Try to become a better leader. A better... person."

"There's nothing you should regret," she insisted, pulling back to gaze up at him. "You kept the rest of them alive, and now you're all back. _And I found Madi_. If I hadn't been here, she would have died, Bellamy. So by leaving me, you not only saved yourselves, you saved her, too."

Bellamy could only nod at her, lighter of heart than he'd felt in years.

"We all did what we had to do that day," she told him, "and I've only ever had... one regret."

"What's that?" He could barely get the words out past the lump in his throat.

Clarke's face softened with affection as she reached up to touch his face.

"This is new," she teased, running her thumb along the hair he'd let grow along his jaw and above his lip. Bellamy's breath hitched as she continued to stroke his cheek, hardly daring to believe she was really touching him like that.

"This is what I regret," she said plainly. "What I thought about so often over the past six years. Kicking myself that I hadn't... that I'd never know what it was like... to be with you."

"Clarke." He breathed her name as she cupped his face in both her hands. His eyes fluttered shut just as he felt her lips slide across his own, and then it was all sensation. Clarke was kissing him, and he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back with everything in him.

It seemed impossible to believe that this was happening. That Clarke wasn't dead but here in his arms instead. Bellamy thought he must surely be dreaming, but when he heard her soft moan he knew it was no dream.

Lips and tongues and teeth. Hands and arms and fingers. Touching, stroking. Desire speared through him faster and more intensely than he could ever remember.

Bellamy was soon hard and wanting, and he couldn't seem to stop himself from dragging her flush against him, their bodies twisting and turning frantically. Just as he felt like he was about to explode with need, Clarke suddenly pulled away just enough to whisper in his ear.

"Do you want to know where I was going when you found me?"

"Sure," he said on an exhale, his breath coming in short pants. By now, he was barely capable of speech.

"Come on, then," she said, her eyes half-lidded, and she tugged at his hand until he began to move with her.

It didn't matter where she was taking him; in that moment he would have followed her anywhere

But old habits of responsibility die hard, and one rational thought filtered through.

"Wait," he said, grabbing for their rifles. "We can't leave these."

Clarke smiled ruefully. "You're right. But I'm pretty sure no one is going to find us, anyway."

He heard it before he saw it, the unmistakeable sound of running water. A short walk had brought them to a grassy knoll that was bisected by a shallow stream.

"This is where I used to come when I was feeling particularly...regretful," Clarke said, waving her hand around around.

"Regretful?"

"About all the the things we - you and I - never got to be to one another."

As Bellamy surveyed Clarke's hideaway, the sun was just beginning its descent over the horizon, casting the scene in a rosy glow. She led him to a spot along the banking where the ground leveled off and plateaued for several yards.

She tugged at him again and smiled. "Let's sit."

"It's beautiful here," he said, dropping to the ground and glancing around. "Peaceful. No wonder you were drawn to this spot. And you used to come here and think about...me?" He could hardly believe it.

"Yeah," she nodded. "After Madi went to sleep and I had some time to myself."

Clarke grabbed his hand, her eyes drifting shut as she used his palm to caress her cheek. Bellamy bent to kiss her again, but she stopped him with a soft, "Wait."

"You don't want me to kiss you?"

Her smile was warm. "I do want you to kiss me, but first, I thought you might like to know exactly how it was I remembered you when I was in this particular spot."

"Okay," he returned her smile. Whatever she wanted to say was just what he wanted to hear. "Tell me."

"I think I need to show you," she said, tugging on his hand once again until they were lying side by side on the grass, their heads close together.

"Show me what?"

"Do you think you can just watch for a bit?" she said, not really answering.

"Of course."

"Good." Clarke reached over to give him the briefest of kisses. "I want you to know... everything."

She dropped his hand and lay back, closing her eyes against the sunset.

"It was always easier if I closed my eyes. I could remember your face," she turned to him with a sly smile, "although I never pictured that beard. But it doesn't matter," her eyes shut again as she settled back into her monologue, "because your face wasn't all that I remembered."

Clarke's body shifted on the grass, and Bellamy lay on his side, listening and watching her intently.

"You once told me that you were tired of saving my life..."

"Clarke..."

"Shh! I'm telling this story," she reminded him, her eyes still closed. "And you did save me so many tines. Sometimes when I probably didn't deserve it. And after a while, I learned to depend on you. And you never let me down. Not once."

Bellamy would like to have taken issue with that statement, but he knew better than to interrupt her again.

"Yeah, maybe you were an ass at first. I think I already told you that a long time ago. But then...later...you became the most important person in my life, the best friend I'd ever had."

She stopped for a moment, and Bellamy thought she might be done. But she wasn't.

"So you kept me safe, and you were trustworthy and...and... heroic. And... special. A special person. But thing is, Bellamy..."

Her voice had dropped to a whisper, and Bellamy waited to hear was coming next.

"As special as you were as a person, as wonderful a friend as you were, that didn't keep me from noticing that you were also... beautiful. And sexy. And sometimes when we were alone, it was all I could do to keep you from knowing how much I... wanted you."

Bellamy couldn't help his quick intake of breath. _How the hell had he not known this?_

"And then...later, after you'd gone back to the Ark, and I wasn't sure I'd ever see you again, I wondered why I'd worked so fucking hard to keep you from knowing how much I wanted you."

She turned then, opening her eyes to stare at hm.

"And usually when I got to this point in... remembering, that's when I'd want to make myself... feel good."

"Yeah? How'd you do that?" Bellamy could hear the hoarseness in his voice.

"Like this," she said, unbuttoning her pants slowly and shoving her hand inside, between her legs.

He was immediately rock hard.

"But sometimes," she added throatily, "after a while, that wasn't enough." Clarke pulled off her jacket and tore her shirt over her head.

"Jesus, Clarke!"

The sight of Clarke Griffin, her right hand squeezing her bra-clad breasts and her left moving wetly between her legs, was the most erotic thing Bellamy had ever seen. His cock was so hard it was straining the front of his pants.

"And is that making you feel good now?" he asked, his tone gravelly with desire.

"Oh, yeah," she said, her voice a sultry whisper, "but since you're here now, I'd like it a lot if maybe you could take over."

"Fuck, I'd like that a lot, too," he said.

Bellamy didn't know where to touch first. Whether to use his hands or his mouth. He wanted them everywhere. He leaned in to kiss her, and moved his own hand between her legs.

God, she was so fucking wet!

When she rolled towards him, pressing herself against him, he reached behind her back to unclasp her bra and then took a few seconds to pull off his own jacket and shirt.

Oh, god, how he wanted to just pull Clarke under him, press his weight across her and claim her, like some ancient Romeo, but she was so small he was afraid he might hurt her. So instead, he lay back and pulled her on top of him.

When her hard-pebbled nipples scraped across his chest, Bellamy's breathing became erratic. He could scarcely believe that this was really Clarke, half-naked and aroused, spread-eagled across his body.

He couldn't imagine wanting to be anywhere else.

As their mouths fused together, open and wet, tongues sliding and scraping against each other, Bellamy reached up and began to caress her breasts.

Clarke moaned, shifting slightly up his body and hovering over him.

"Suck them," she whispered. "Suck my tits."

He took first one hardened nipple in his mouth, then the other, his hands caressing down her silky back and then further down to grab onto her ass.

"Clarke, can you take your pants off?" he breathed. "I need to be inside you."

She nodded. "Yeah, I need that, too."

They quickly discarded boots and pants until nothing was between them but heat and desire.

Bellamy's hand moved back between her legs, finding her even wetter. When Clarke grasped his cock and began languidly stroking, Bellamy had to grab her wrist and pull it away.

"If you keep doing that, it'll be all over sooner than I think you want."

"Well, then I'll stop," she said lazily, lying back and opening her legs, "because I really want you to fuck me."

Bellamy moved over her carefully, "You're so small, Clarke. Are you sure I won't hurt you?"

"I'm a thousand percent sure that the only thing I really want right now is you on top of me and your cock in my cunt."

Christ! If she kept on talking like that he wasn't even going to make it that far.

When his fingers found her drenched, her juices flowing out of her, Bellamy rolled on top of Clarke and entered her in one smooth stroke.

He had to stop then. Stay quiet and calm and try to regain control of himself. Bellamy was nearly thirty and he'd had his share of sexual encounters, but right at that moment, he was so incredibly aroused that he felt like a kid with his first girl.

"Oh, fuck, you feel so good," she said, and he groaned as his cock twitched inside her. "I never thought we'd get the chance to do this."

He dropped his head to her shoulder, trying to hold himself still inside her.

"Me either. And right now I'm so fucking turned on that I don't think we're going to be doing it for very long."

"That's okay," she said, "because I'm pretty sure I'm gonna want to do it again, anyway. Often."

With that, her hips began to move, and then instinct took over for them both, as Bellamy stroked strongly in and out of Clarke. They both moaned with how good it felt, and then Clarke wrapped her legs around his back, changing the angle just enough to intensify his pleasure, and hopefully her own as well.

Bellamy's tongue was in her mouth, and when Clarke began to suck on it, it was simply too much. His body spasmed and he emptied himself into her. His climax triggered hers and she shuddered and moaned in a way that Bellamy hoped meant that she, too, had found maximum pleasure.

For a few seconds they lay there, listless and spent, and then Bellamy gathered her into his arms and pulled her tightly to his side.

He gave a sudden laugh.

"When I followed you into the woods awhile ago, I wasn't really expecting that to happen."

Clarke snorted. "Yeah, I didn't exactly have _fuck Bellamy_ on my radar either."

"Would you have...I mean, if I hadn't followed you, would you have come here to this spot and...done what you usually do."

Clarke flushed. "With you back there in the village?" She shook her head. "I couldn't have."

Bellamy was amused. "Don't you think it's a little late to be getting embarrassed now?"

She shrugged. "I guess that depends on... what this meant to you."

"What it meant?" _What the fuck was she talking about?_

"Well, I more or less seduced you..."

"The hell you did! Was there anything about what just happened that made you think I was reluctant? Jesus, Clarke, this wasn't just the best thing that's ever happened to me, it was like some goddamned miracle."

A smile began to light her face.

"So you...might be interested in doing it again sometime?"

"Well, here's the thing," he murmured, stroking a finger softy across her cheek. "I'm _not_ interested in doing it with anyone else. This is our second chance, Clarke. I think we should try not to screw it up."

He saw the sudden sheen in her eyes.

"What's wrong? What have I said?" _Fuck, had he said too much?_

"Nothing, Bellamy," she said, her smile watery. "These are happy tears."

"Thank god," he said, pulling her close... and noticing her body temperature was way too low.

"Hey, you're freezing. I think maybe we ought to get dressed."

"We could," she acknowledged. "Or there might be other ways of keeping warm."

"It's getting dark," he reminded her.

"I know my way in the dark," she said, climbing on top of him and leaning down for a kiss. "And besides, there are a few other things I'd like to try."

Bellamy began to think that perhaps miracle didn't quite cover it after all.

XXXXXXXXXX

It was after dark by the time they returned, but not by much. Clarke needed to check in on Madi, so they stopped to see Raven, who'd managed to secure her own cottage at one end of the village. She merely raised an eyebrow when they appeared at her door together, while assuring Clarke that Madi was nearby.

"So, Bellamy," Raven said matter-of-factly, "it looks like I've got this sweet little place all to myself because I needed the space for a workshop. I've still got an extra room, though. You interested?"

"Thanks, Raven, but, uh, actually,..."

"Bellamy's moving in with us," Clarke said in her usual direct manner.

"Shocking," Raven said, and this time there was a smirk to go along with the raised brow.

They'd talked about it on the way back, and decided that after six years they really didn't want to be separated anymore. But Bellamy been concerned that Madi might object, so he wasn't quite ready to call it a done deal.

"Only if it's okay with Madi," he told Raven.

As though she'd heard her name, Madi suddenly came darting into the cottage.

"You're back!" she exclaimed, "And you're with Bellamy," she added with a smile.

"Right on both counts." Clarke gave her a quick hug, and it was easy for Bellamy to see how much they loved one another.

"So, Madi, uh, Bellamy's looking for a place to stay and we were wondering if you'd mind if he moved in with us."

Madi's eyes widened at the question and she appeared to be thinking it over. Finally she shrugged and said, "Sure, I guess it's okay. I only have one request."

"And what's that?"

"That you two try to be quiet. _Nomon_ and _nontu_ made so much noise that sometimes I couldn't sleep at night."

Raven's peal of laughter rang out, and Bellamy nearly choked on his tongue.

"Uh, I think we can promise to be quiet enough for you to sleep," Clarke told Madi, as a flush settled across her cheeks.

"Okay, then. Do you have a lot of stuff?" Madi asked him unexpectedly.

He shook his head. "My pack is with Octavia. I'll get it tomorrow."

"See you at home, then" she nodded, skipping off again.

Bellamy couldn't believe that was all it had taken for his life to turn in a totally new direction. They were back on the ground, and Clarke was alive. And not just alive, but wanted to be with him. Wanted him to be a part of her little family.

There were people who were trying to kill them, he knew, people who wanted to make themselves into enemies and go to war over this small patch of green. But right then, none of that felt like it mattered. As far as Bellamy was concerned, this was the best day of his life.

"I really wasn't expecting that remark from Madi," Bellamy said, a wry smile on his lips, as they made their way through the darkened village toward Clarke's cottage.

Clarke's smile matched his own. "Her parents died when she was only six, Bellamy, so I don't think she really ever understood what those those nighttime noises meant. She just connects it with...uh...having two adults in the house."

He nodded. "Yeah, I figured that might be it."

"I'll... talk to her tomorrow. Try to explain... somehow."

"Or we can just be really, really quiet," he smirked.

"Well," she teased, "we can _try_."

Bellamy laughed quietly, wrapping his arm around her as they strolled along.

"I missed you so damn much," he said softly, pulling her tight against him.

"You didn't need me, Bellamy. I've talked to the others, and I know you were a wonderful leader up there on the ring."

He halted them both in their tracks.

"I didn't miss you as my partner, Clarke, or as my co-leader. I didn't want your help with the others. I needed you for _me_. There wasn't a single day in the last six years that I didn't feel like a part of me was missing."

Clarke's look when she smiled up at him was filled with such affection that he couldn't stop himself from leaning down and kissing her right there in the middle of the quiet village path.

"I missed you, too," she told him. "So if you want me, I'm not going anywhere."

"Good," Bellamy said. "I'll hold you to that. Because whatever happens next, whatever the hell this planet has in store for us, I want us to face it together."


End file.
